Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Living My Life Like a ~Randomly Connected~ Song*

I am interrupting this blog post with an important update!! I am a guest blogger!! Please check out the link and while you are there, check out Vikki's stories of married life and just living! : Laugh Lines!  

Now, back to my blog! 
 
So, I briefly held a monkey hostage this weekend.



Just to clarify:

    1. No monkeys were harmed in this brief hostage-taking.
    2. There was only one monkey.
    3. There was wine involved. And Parrotheads.



This is the monkey of question:
If you woof someone, set them free...
 He is of Chinese pedigree, according to his tag – and the rather poorly translated 'wuv' which reads 'woof'. Unless Chinese monkeys actually do 'woof', which his owner adamantly believes to be true.

We met 'Woofy' and his owner, Amanda, at Grafton Winery.

We were there with two old friends to listen to some music, have a glass of wine on an otherwise dreary Saturday and celebrate our anniversary. You know, keep it quiet. Low key. But instead of a peaceful winery with people sipping pinot while sampling cheeses we were greeted by a Cabin Fever Party – Hawaiian Leas, a light up flamingo, a trop-rock band and a winery full of Parrotheads. 
As feral Parrotheads, Bart and I felt right at home.

There was also raffle tickets, tiny drink umbrellas and wine.

Through some rather...friendly extortion...I managed to get the crowd's support in acquiring Woofy.

(It should be noted that I never intended to keep Woofy.)
Bart, fearing for the monkey's safety, did some UN level negotiating and for the price of one dance, Amber was reunited with her pet. And Bart and I were invited to join the Parrotheads of the River Bend. (As it turns out, Amber is the group's charity director.)
and if they woof you they will come back...or if you get the band to do a shout out...either way...

I guess my point here is this: keep your eyes and your mind open and be ready to always have fun. You just never know when you will meet a new friend, learn a new song, taste a new food. We left the house on Saturday expecting to hear some tunes and talk with some old friends. I never intended to kidnap a monkey. Amber never intended to wind up on this blog. Bart...well, he never knows what's going to happen.



We left the winery and drove literally straight up the bluff and spent the rest of our evening enjoying the lovely fireplace in our rented condo. 
Fine. It was electric. But it was still pretty.

(A little background – Parrotheads are people who embrace the music of Jimmy Buffett. As a sanctioned Parrothead club, the mission is to Party with a Purpose. The clubs gather, or Phlock, for fun and to support a variety of causes. On this particular day, Parrotheads of the River Bend raised money for a local no-kill animal shelter; click on their name if you would like a full list of their charities, activities and their manatee. Yes. Manatee. And after such a warm welcome by the group, Bart and I are reconsidering our Feral Parrothead status.)



I would love to have included some photos of Grafton, the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, that horrifying road up to Aerie's Lodge and some of the winter nesting bald eagles. I should also mention the delicious breakfast we ate at Ruebel Hotel - present in Grafton since 1904! However, it was cloudy on Saturday so I held off on picture taking until Sunday. Visibility was about three feet on Sunday, the whole region fogged in after a cold front just missed dumping ice and snow on us. Seize the day. Lesson learned, God.

This turned out to be a blessing as it allowed us to drive back down the horrifying bluff road and make it home in time for me to sign up for the Color Run 5K.

It will be my first 5k.

But it won't be the first time I get stuff all over my white clothes.



*Living My Life Like a Song~Jimmy Buffett






9 comments:

  1. I'm a big fan of Jimmy Buffet and Monkey's (on occasion!--see one of my recent blog posts!) so I had to read your post. It sounds like a fun club AND a fun weekend!

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    1. Thanks Kathy! It has been my experience that Parrotheads are great people. I am rather neutral on monkeys, although sock monkeys terrify me.

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  2. Happy Anniversary! Sounds like it was a good one.

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    1. It was bonnie! Number 30 and each one has been it's own adventure.

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  3. PS - ooh, hey, thanks for the link! I just added you to my blogroll too.

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    1. You are welcome! And thank you too! We Sailor Girls need to stick together!

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  4. Found your blog from your guest post on Laugh Lines and glad I did.
    There's a Margaritaville close by our home and we occasionally indulge.
    Happy anniversary!

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    1. Thanks Meryl! I think the closest Margaritaville for me is Cincinnati. But it is really more of a state of mind...

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